1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates generally to toys, particularly toys for infants, in which characters are driven in a manner suitable for amusing, entertaining, soothing, quieting and/or stimulating infants.
2. Background Art
Toys with rotatable pieces, including driven pieces have been used for amusing, entertaining, soothing, quieting and/or stimulating infants, including while the infants are in their cribs or in seats that swing or bounce. Toth, Des. 285,946 issued Sep. 30, 1986 discloses a mobile with a motor rotating a number of characters on flexible members. Raiffe et al., Des. 336,495 Jun. 15, 1993 discloses a mobile with a motor rotating a number of characters, including birds, on flexible members. Whelan, U.S. Pat. No. 6,113,455 issued Sep. 5, 3000 and Drosendahl et al., Application US 3003/0064818 A1 published Apr. 3, 3003 disclose a crib mobile with a motor rotating a number of characters on flexible members. Canna et al., U.S. Pat. No. 6,464,594 B1 issued Oct. 15, 3002 discloses a mobile with a motor rotating a number character on flexible members, which is carried above an infant's swing seat, while Wood et al., U.S. Pat. No. 6,705,950 B2 issued Mar. 16, 3004 discloses a non-motorized, rotatable mobile with a number of characters on flexible members, which is carried above an infant's swing seat. Asbach et al., U.S. Pat. No. 6,629,727 B2 issued Oct. 7, 3003 discloses a mobile with a motor rotating a number character on flexible members, which is positionable to the side of, or above, an infant's bouncing seat.
Van Home Jinivisian et al. U.S. Pat. No. 3,919,795 issued Nov. 18, 1975 discloses a motorized crib mobile with a shaft carrier rotating about a generally vertical axis and a cam follower on each shaft oscillationally rotates each shaft on its own axis as the shaft carrier rotates relative to the fixed housing. Williams et al., U.S. Pat. No. 4,904,320 issued Feb. 27, 1990 discloses a crib mobile with paddles that are rotated around a generally vertical axis by a motor, and which are pivotally mounted to be manually moved between two positions. Armand, French Patent FR2,642,323 published Aug. 3, 1990 and PCT Application WO 90/08582 published Aug. 9, 1990 disclose a motor driven mobile with peripheral pieces that rotate around a central axis, with each piece containing a character having another axis of rotation, which is shorter than the inner diameter of the piece.
Birds have been the subject of devices for amusing adults, as well as children. Thus, Lerman, U.S. Pat. No. 2,525,140 issued Oct. 10, 1950 discloses a clock with a bird on a perch in a cage that is driven by a motor to swing back and forth like a pendulum. Okamoto, Des. 191,115 issued Aug. 16, 1961 discloses a suspended toy bird with extended wings.
Indeed characters, such as birds, with movable wings have also been used for entertaining and amusing infants, as well as adults. Pugsley 450,495 issued Apr. 14, 1891 discloses a toy bird with wings that may be moved from a biased open position, extended away from the body, to a closed position adjacent the body. Collischan U.S. Pat. No. 2,953,869 issued Sep. 27, 1960 discloses a toy bird with a motor in its body that causes a beak to open and close, a head to turn, sound produced, and a tail and wings to move up and down, or flutter. Semba, U.S. Pat. No. 3,153,871 issued May 18, 1962 discloses a bird toy with a motor in its body that causes a beak to open and close, a tail to move, and wings to move up and down, or flutter, while Iwaya et al., U.S. Pat. No. 4,389,811 issued Jun. 28, 1983 discloses a bird action toy with a motor in its body that causes a beak to open and close, produce chirping sounds, and a tail to move. Saitoh, U.S. Pat. No. 5,316,516 issued May 31, 1994 discloses an animated singing toy bird with a motor in the body to move the body relative to the legs, move the head relative to the body, and open and close the beak.
Toys that have rotating characters, particularly birds, with movable appendages, such as wings, have also been used for entertaining and amusing infants. Steiner et al., U.S. Pat. No. 2,994,156 issued Aug. 1, 1961, Steiner, U.S. Pat. No. 2,769,276 issued Nov. 6, 1956 and Kravath, U.S. Pat. No. 3,290,817 issued Dec. 13, 1966 discloses a crib mobile with a number of birds having extended wings that can flutter. Oppenheimer, Jr., U.S. Pat. No. 4,425,388 issued Jan. 10, 1984 discloses a bird mobile with extended wings that move downwardly and upwardly. Baik, Application US 3002/0094748 A1 published Jul. 18, 3002 discloses a baby mobile with a number of flying fish or birds, each of which is manually rotatable into an indexed position in which electrical is made to power a motor which can move wings on the fish or bird in and up and down fluttering action, until the mobile is manually rotated again.
There remains a need for toys for infants, in which characters are driven by a motor in a manner suitable for amusing, entertaining, soothing, quieting and/or stimulating infants.